[g_podcast id="8501720"]
In today's episode of the Darmglück podcast, it is a special pleasure for me to interview my friend Dr. Janna Scharfenberg on her topic of Ayurveda.
Janna is a holistic practitioner with further training in Ayurvedic medicine and a yoga teacher.
She is passionate about sharing her knowledge of holistic medicine, nutrition, yoga and health and is also a book author, podcaster and mentor. She offers coaching, lectures and workshops for private individuals and companies. She also runs training courses for yoga teachers and people in health professions, such as the Ayurvedic Business Course.
In this fascinating interview, she tells us more about Ayurveda and how Ayurvedic principles can help us to master our lives, whether at work or at home.
The topics covered in the interview are:
Many people have heard of Ayurveda and often associate it with oil massages or something like that.
But Ayurveda is much more than that, it is traditional Indian medicine, a naturopathy that originated in India. However, this does not mean that Ayurveda only works in India, but that it can be applied universally, even here in Europe.
Ayurveda translates as the science or wisdom of life. So it's not just about the science of nutrition or the science of surgery or something like that, but it encompasses all facets of our lives and it's about how we can find our balance, how we can find our center and stay healthy or find health again. That is the main goal of Ayurveda. And of course dan nutrition, cleansing techniques and rituals also play a role, but it is very individually adapted and other aspects such as "what are my thoughts, how do I go through life, what is perhaps also my spiritual inclination" also play a role.
It is a holistic approach to life. Most people may feel addressed because something is perhaps no longer in balance on a physical level and find access to Ayurveda via the body by changing their diet or even going for a cleanse, until people discover that Ayurveda is much more than that.
Is yoga a sub-aspect of Ayurveda?
Yoga and Ayurveda are two self-contained systems, but they have the same goal: to bring body, mind and soul into harmony and to recognize that we are more than our physical shell.
Yoga is more about the physical exercises, the asanas, to prepare the body so that we can sit longer in meditation and address the body and mind levels
Ayurveda says that if I keep the body healthy and if I can feel good in it, then my mind will feel good in the body and so the levels can be brought into harmony.
Yoga and Ayurveda are intertwined, everyone who practices yoga will sooner or later deal with nutrition, for example and if you go to an Ayurvedic doctor, he will also give you exercises from yoga.
Conventional medicine has an incredible amount of knowledge, but focuses more on repairing and making a disease manageable or improving it. However, the preventative nature and holistic approach of medicine is somewhat neglected. And so Janna has not quite found the interests she was looking for in medicine in conventional medicine.
However, she does not demonize conventional medicine, but has found a way to combine the two worlds. Conventional medicine and Ayurveda complement each other wonderfully and the experiential medicine component, together with conventional medicine, offers a great overall program.
The intestine is at the center when we look at our body. Nutrition also plays a very important role in all natural medicine and Ayurveda says that you are not what you eat, but what you digest. You can eat as well as you like, but if our gut is not working properly, is overloaded or is not digesting well, then we can't do anything with the good food.
That is why the gut is very important for all Ayurvedic treatments and is always taken into account. Only if the gut is working properly can the rest of the body function in harmony.
It's enormous. Diet is of course very tangible, but stress is of course also a big issue and many people notice that digestion doesn't work properly when we are stressed. It's often a kind of vicious circle: when we're stressed, we don't eat well, our gut reacts, and then we become even more stressed...
But what you shouldn't underestimate is that our entire gastrointestinal tract, and especially our gut, can only function properly when we're relaxed! Because when we are under tension, when we are under stress, our body ensures that we are very outwardly focused, in reaction, and that we react to stress (which is actually a danger from a biological point of view) with muscle tension, adrenaline is released and everything in the body is polarized so that we can avoid or eliminate this danger.
This means that when we are (perceived to be) in danger, there are no resources available for us to digest in peace.
Under stress, digestive activity is shut down, nerve impulses are no longer as strong, blood flow is reduced somewhat and everything we need to digest well is put into economy mode. Of course, this is not a problem in the short term, but the problem is that we are stuck in this stressful situation in the long term and therefore always throttle the gut in this stress and are not even aware of it.
And of course, if I am not happy in my life, I am also under stress. I'm probably not taking good care of myself, I'm tense and of course I notice this in my Digestion.
Of course, it is always very individual, where does the stress come from? Do I have too much to do, does the stress come from my job, am I not happy in my relationship... So people look very closely at where the stress comes from.
But in general you can say:
We need a healthy approach to all areas of our lives. For example, by slowing down, we bring the Kapha Dosha, the earthy element, into a very fiery (stressful) environment. And so Janna has found, from her experience with clients and over the years, that each person needs slightly different strategies.
If I am a very fiery type, where the Pitta Dosha is very pronounced, these are the people who can get up in the morning, these are the doer types, when they see their full to-do list, they say to themselves, "this is my challenge now, I can do it" and they usually do it. But in between, they sometimes forget to celebrate themselves, take a break and enjoy things.
Then there are people who are more airy, the Vata types, who are very whirlwind, very enthusiastic, who think lots of ideas are great, but when it comes to actually implementing them, it tends to be difficult because they don't have this stability, the foundation, and that can make them very nervous if they have started too many projects at once and no longer know what to do first.
Kapha people, the earthy ones, are the ones who have a lot of structure, who always like to do the same thing, who don't want to leave their comfort zone, and that may be quite nice at first in terms of stress, but it has other challenges, because we humans also need to experience something new, to develop further.We also need to be able to experience something new, to find new inspiration.
If we now look at these types, and we all have these elements in us, but each of you can feel that a little, am I more fiery, airy or earthy - depending on what I am, I have to structure and adapt my day, my week, my life so that I can incorporate the elements that I am missing a little. For example, if I'm an earthy type and a bit stoic, then I need to get a bit of fire from somewhere so that I can get my body and mind going a bit. If I'm more of a fiery type, then I also need some Cooling down, that I can really slow down somehow. And if I am very airy, then I ask myself where I can ground myself, where I can get into structure.
And Janna now not only looks at this with her clients in the health sector, but actually also with colleagues from the health industry, how can I structure my day, my work and also my team accordingly, and analyze and then balance them according to these Ayurvedic aspects. Because we don't just want to have these different bioenergies balanced within us, but also in our environment.
So you can also consider which team member is at home in which element and thus better understand the dynamics.
Janna's
Janna has used this experience of applying the Ayurveda system to business to create a course for people who, like her and me, work in the health sector. Yoga teachers, doctors, therapists and so on. The course is called the Ayurvedic Business Course.
Janna explains why she loves working with people in the health sector: 'The people who work in the health industry, that's a certain kind of people because they have the incentive to be in contact with people, to see that they have a better quality of life. And it's also intimate work, so people in the healthcare industry also need other components when it comes to building up their company, their independence, their business. On the one hand, there are relatively exciting beliefs in the health industry globally, such as "you can't make money from health, if I charge a bit more for my yoga class it's not yogic or spiritual, I have to help everyone, and so on...
And that's why people in these professions need a slightly different approach to how they can implement the business side.
Janna's course is about how we can take these basic Ayurvedic principles, get to know them, but also analyze ourselves as a type, what kind of business type am I, what can I do so that I have a healthy business and can integrate these aspects of Ayurveda. Do I need more structure, do I need someone who simply implements, do I perhaps need more creativity, and how can I build this up for myself?
The course is structured. The first month deals with the Kapha element. What structures do I have, what structures do I need, what do I want to build, what beliefs do I have about money, what basic training and qualifications do I have, what do I want? And once we have laid this foundation, once we have built up our earth, then we move on to the next module.
This is the Pitta module and is about what my qualifications are, but what is my passion, how can I put them into practice, how can I look after myself, how can I move from a competitive mindset to a cooperative mindset. How can I, and this has a lot to do with the heart chakra, how can I take good care of myself?
And the third module, the Vata or air module, is about how I can create authentic communication, how I can show myself to the outside world, offline and online, how I can spread my message, but not from a hard-nosed strategy, but really from the heart.
Janna has a great team of guest lecturers on the course, who come from their own fields. provide assistance. The structure of the course is such that there is one intensive week per month, where a lot of know-how is covered and then 3 weeks of implementation phase, where you can ask questions and let others look over it.
If you are interested in this course and work in the healthcare sector, you can find all the information here:
Link to the Ayurvedic Business Course*
It is a combination of a learning course and a coaching program.
Janna has written a book, which will be published on 20 May 2019 and is called "Ayurveda for life". It's about how to integrate the traditional art of healing into modern everyday life. You can already pre-order it on amazon:
Link to the book Ayurveda for life*
There is also a large chapter on digestion, adapted to modern times and our local food. The book should be a good practical guide if you don't have much time and don't feel at home with traditional Ayurveda.
We also recommend Janna's podcast Einfach gesund leben. It deals with Ayurveda, holistic medicine and a relatively broad range of health topics and also answers questions from listeners.
Janna Scharfenberg's website
www.drjannascharfenberg.com
Janna Scharfenberg's Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/dr_janna_scharfenberg/
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/DrJannaScharfenberg/
Interview with Julia Gruber on Janna Scharfenberg's podcast:
Now I recommend you subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you like what you hear, I really appreciate a review on iTunes or Apple Podcast. Because those reviews also help other people find the podcast so we can spread the knowledge about gut and health more.
In today's episode of the Darmglück podcast, it is a special pleasure for me to interview my friend Dr. Janna Scharfenberg on her topic of Ayurveda.
Janna is a holistic practitioner with further training in Ayurvedic medicine and a yoga teacher.
She is passionate about sharing her knowledge of holistic medicine, nutrition, yoga and health and is also a book author, podcaster and mentor. She offers coaching, lectures and workshops for private individuals and companies. She also runs training courses for yoga teachers and people in health professions, such as the Ayurvedic Business Course.
In this fascinating interview, she tells us more about Ayurveda and how Ayurvedic principles can help us to master our lives, whether at work or at home.
The topics covered in the interview are:
- What actually is Ayurveda?
- How did Janna, as a trained doctor, come to Ayurveda in the first place?
- What does Ayurveda say about the gut?
- Why is it also helpful for everyday life and business to know your basic Ayurvedic constitution?
- And: it gives us 3 very specific strategies on how we can reduce stress in our everyday lives
What is Ayurveda anyway?
Many people have heard of Ayurveda and often associate it with oil massages or something like that.
But Ayurveda is much more than that, it is traditional Indian medicine, a naturopathy that originated in India. However, this does not mean that Ayurveda only works in India, but that it can be applied universally, even here in Europe.
Ayurveda translates as the science or wisdom of life. So it's not just about the science of nutrition or the science of surgery or something like that, but it encompasses all facets of our lives and it's about how we can find our balance, how we can find our center and stay healthy or find health again. That is the main goal of Ayurveda. And of course dan nutrition, cleansing techniques and rituals also play a role, but it is very individually adapted and other aspects such as "what are my thoughts, how do I go through life, what is perhaps also my spiritual inclination" also play a role.
It is a holistic approach to life. Most people may feel addressed because something is perhaps no longer in balance on a physical level and find access to Ayurveda via the body by changing their diet or even going for a cleanse, until people discover that Ayurveda is much more than that.
Is yoga a sub-aspect of Ayurveda?
Yoga and Ayurveda are two self-contained systems, but they have the same goal: to bring body, mind and soul into harmony and to recognize that we are more than our physical shell.
Yoga is more about the physical exercises, the asanas, to prepare the body so that we can sit longer in meditation and address the body and mind levels
Ayurveda says that if I keep the body healthy and if I can feel good in it, then my mind will feel good in the body and so the levels can be brought into harmony.
Yoga and Ayurveda are intertwined, everyone who practices yoga will sooner or later deal with nutrition, for example and if you go to an Ayurvedic doctor, he will also give you exercises from yoga.
How did Janna come to Ayurveda as a conventional doctor
Conventional medicine has an incredible amount of knowledge, but focuses more on repairing and making a disease manageable or improving it. However, the preventative nature and holistic approach of medicine is somewhat neglected. And so Janna has not quite found the interests she was looking for in medicine in conventional medicine.
However, she does not demonize conventional medicine, but has found a way to combine the two worlds. Conventional medicine and Ayurveda complement each other wonderfully and the experiential medicine component, together with conventional medicine, offers a great overall program.
How important is the intestine in Ayurveda?
The intestine is at the center when we look at our body. Nutrition also plays a very important role in all natural medicine and Ayurveda says that you are not what you eat, but what you digest. You can eat as well as you like, but if our gut is not working properly, is overloaded or is not digesting well, then we can't do anything with the good food.
That is why the gut is very important for all Ayurvedic treatments and is always taken into account. Only if the gut is working properly can the rest of the body function in harmony.
How does Janna see the influence of things like lifestyle, happiness or stress on the gut?
It's enormous. Diet is of course very tangible, but stress is of course also a big issue and many people notice that digestion doesn't work properly when we are stressed. It's often a kind of vicious circle: when we're stressed, we don't eat well, our gut reacts, and then we become even more stressed...
But what you shouldn't underestimate is that our entire gastrointestinal tract, and especially our gut, can only function properly when we're relaxed! Because when we are under tension, when we are under stress, our body ensures that we are very outwardly focused, in reaction, and that we react to stress (which is actually a danger from a biological point of view) with muscle tension, adrenaline is released and everything in the body is polarized so that we can avoid or eliminate this danger.
This means that when we are (perceived to be) in danger, there are no resources available for us to digest in peace.
Under stress, digestive activity is shut down, nerve impulses are no longer as strong, blood flow is reduced somewhat and everything we need to digest well is put into economy mode. Of course, this is not a problem in the short term, but the problem is that we are stuck in this stressful situation in the long term and therefore always throttle the gut in this stress and are not even aware of it.
And of course, if I am not happy in my life, I am also under stress. I'm probably not taking good care of myself, I'm tense and of course I notice this in my Digestion.
What specific tips does Ayurveda have on how to reduce stress?
Of course, it is always very individual, where does the stress come from? Do I have too much to do, does the stress come from my job, am I not happy in my relationship... So people look very closely at where the stress comes from.
But in general you can say:
- Breathe! If we manage to breathe deeply and evenly, because this signals to our brain that it can't be that bad, because we can still breathe deeply and evenly. This tip is so simple yet helpful and is often forgotten!
- Consciously take short breaks. The busier the day is, the more you don't know in the morning how you're going to get everything done, so it makes sense to consciously incorporate slowness. I don't rush to my next appointment now, I walk slowly to my next appointment, I don't look at my cell phone and so I slow down.
- If we eat a healthy diet, take breaks between meals and drink enough in between - Ayurveda recommends warm water - you can achieve a lot without having to change your whole life.
Ayurveda also helps us to plan our day or life in harmony with the three types
We need a healthy approach to all areas of our lives. For example, by slowing down, we bring the Kapha Dosha, the earthy element, into a very fiery (stressful) environment. And so Janna has found, from her experience with clients and over the years, that each person needs slightly different strategies.
If I am a very fiery type, where the Pitta Dosha is very pronounced, these are the people who can get up in the morning, these are the doer types, when they see their full to-do list, they say to themselves, "this is my challenge now, I can do it" and they usually do it. But in between, they sometimes forget to celebrate themselves, take a break and enjoy things.
Then there are people who are more airy, the Vata types, who are very whirlwind, very enthusiastic, who think lots of ideas are great, but when it comes to actually implementing them, it tends to be difficult because they don't have this stability, the foundation, and that can make them very nervous if they have started too many projects at once and no longer know what to do first.
Kapha people, the earthy ones, are the ones who have a lot of structure, who always like to do the same thing, who don't want to leave their comfort zone, and that may be quite nice at first in terms of stress, but it has other challenges, because we humans also need to experience something new, to develop further.We also need to be able to experience something new, to find new inspiration.
If we now look at these types, and we all have these elements in us, but each of you can feel that a little, am I more fiery, airy or earthy - depending on what I am, I have to structure and adapt my day, my week, my life so that I can incorporate the elements that I am missing a little. For example, if I'm an earthy type and a bit stoic, then I need to get a bit of fire from somewhere so that I can get my body and mind going a bit. If I'm more of a fiery type, then I also need some Cooling down, that I can really slow down somehow. And if I am very airy, then I ask myself where I can ground myself, where I can get into structure.
And Janna now not only looks at this with her clients in the health sector, but actually also with colleagues from the health industry, how can I structure my day, my work and also my team accordingly, and analyze and then balance them according to these Ayurvedic aspects. Because we don't just want to have these different bioenergies balanced within us, but also in our environment.
So you can also consider which team member is at home in which element and thus better understand the dynamics.
Janna's
Ayurvedic Business Course
Janna has used this experience of applying the Ayurveda system to business to create a course for people who, like her and me, work in the health sector. Yoga teachers, doctors, therapists and so on. The course is called the Ayurvedic Business Course.
Janna explains why she loves working with people in the health sector: 'The people who work in the health industry, that's a certain kind of people because they have the incentive to be in contact with people, to see that they have a better quality of life. And it's also intimate work, so people in the healthcare industry also need other components when it comes to building up their company, their independence, their business. On the one hand, there are relatively exciting beliefs in the health industry globally, such as "you can't make money from health, if I charge a bit more for my yoga class it's not yogic or spiritual, I have to help everyone, and so on...
And that's why people in these professions need a slightly different approach to how they can implement the business side.
Janna's course is about how we can take these basic Ayurvedic principles, get to know them, but also analyze ourselves as a type, what kind of business type am I, what can I do so that I have a healthy business and can integrate these aspects of Ayurveda. Do I need more structure, do I need someone who simply implements, do I perhaps need more creativity, and how can I build this up for myself?
The course is structured. The first month deals with the Kapha element. What structures do I have, what structures do I need, what do I want to build, what beliefs do I have about money, what basic training and qualifications do I have, what do I want? And once we have laid this foundation, once we have built up our earth, then we move on to the next module.
This is the Pitta module and is about what my qualifications are, but what is my passion, how can I put them into practice, how can I look after myself, how can I move from a competitive mindset to a cooperative mindset. How can I, and this has a lot to do with the heart chakra, how can I take good care of myself?
And the third module, the Vata or air module, is about how I can create authentic communication, how I can show myself to the outside world, offline and online, how I can spread my message, but not from a hard-nosed strategy, but really from the heart.
Janna has a great team of guest lecturers on the course, who come from their own fields. provide assistance. The structure of the course is such that there is one intensive week per month, where a lot of know-how is covered and then 3 weeks of implementation phase, where you can ask questions and let others look over it.
Further information and links from Janna Scharfenberg
If you are interested in this course and work in the healthcare sector, you can find all the information here:
Link to the Ayurvedic Business Course*
It is a combination of a learning course and a coaching program.
Janna has written a book, which will be published on 20 May 2019 and is called "Ayurveda for life". It's about how to integrate the traditional art of healing into modern everyday life. You can already pre-order it on amazon:
Link to the book Ayurveda for life*
There is also a large chapter on digestion, adapted to modern times and our local food. The book should be a good practical guide if you don't have much time and don't feel at home with traditional Ayurveda.
We also recommend Janna's podcast Einfach gesund leben. It deals with Ayurveda, holistic medicine and a relatively broad range of health topics and also answers questions from listeners.
Janna Scharfenberg's website
www.drjannascharfenberg.com
Janna Scharfenberg's Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/dr_janna_scharfenberg/
https://www.facebook.com/DrJannaScharfenberg/
Interview with Julia Gruber on Janna Scharfenberg's podcast:
Now I recommend you subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you like what you hear, I really appreciate a review on iTunes or Apple Podcast. Because those reviews also help other people find the podcast so we can spread the knowledge about gut and health more.
